
Ivan "The Mountain" Ironbrow |

Ivan catches the blade on his shield, he barely feels the impact, slowed as it was by his unfortunate allies. He immediately slams his hammer down on the fat giants foot, looking to destabilize its footing.
attack,PA,FE: 1d20 + 14 + 2 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (8) + 14 + 2 + 1 - 2 = 23
damage: 2d6 + 14 ⇒ (6, 1) + 14 = 21
attack,PA,FE: 1d20 + 9 + 2 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (20) + 9 + 2 + 1 - 2 = 30
damage: 2d6 + 14 ⇒ (6, 1) + 14 = 21
attack,PA,FE,confirm?: 1d20 + 9 + 2 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 9 + 2 + 1 - 2 = 21 unfortunate. haha

Daseem |

Dasem grunted as the butcher's cleaver cut deeply into his side. It hurt like blazes but he didn't have time to worry about that with the scuttling hand thingy still 'alive'. He moved towards it and raised his sword up and then down like an axe!
Gorum's Thorn, Power Attack, Vital Strike: 1d20 + 10 - 2 ⇒ (7) + 10 - 2 = 15
Gorum's Thorn, Power Attack, Vital Strike (reroll): 1d20 + 10 - 2 ⇒ (14) + 10 - 2 = 22
Damage: 4d6 + 6 + 6 ⇒ (5, 5, 1, 3) + 6 + 6 = 26
Sorry I meant to post last night.

Foxy Quickpaw |

Daseem cuts the hand down in honor of Gorum.
Combat over
The cleaver counts as a large light handaxe. And it's magic. +1
Through the door the butcher came out it the kitchen. Carcasses of various humanoids and animals lie in haphazard piles in this room [ooc](K18).

Bupkis |

Bupkis breathes a sigh of relief when Ivan and Daseem finish off the enemies. He takes stock of his injuries and says, "Bupkis can heal himself, but others hurt too. Maybe Amira channels?"
Bupkis is down 32hp (15 more was absorbed by his Force Ward). He also has 18 non-lethal burn damage that can't be healed (it goes away when we have a full rest).

Bupkis |

"OK, Bupkis heals, the goblin replies, and heals the majority of his wounds.
Kinetic Healer (Bupkis): 3d6 + 11 ⇒ (6, 2, 2) + 11 = 21 (Force Ward gets 6 points back as well.)
Bupkis is now at 24 non-lethal damage. He could use a tap of the CLW wand (12 lethal damage remaining).
For some reason, I was getting the abilities of the Songhealer mixed up with those of the Hex Channeler Witch. As usual, Bupkis can heal others, as long as they pay the burn cost for their own healing (6 non-lethal for 3d6+11 lethal healed). He can accept burn twice more this day.

Daseem |

Daseem took 39 damage that fight so he's going to need some patching up.
Daseem readily accepts Bupkis's aid, the butcher had done a number on him with that wretched cleaver.
Kinetic Healing: 3d6 + 11 ⇒ (5, 3, 3) + 11 = 22
Feeling somewhat better Daseem asked, "W-where to next?"

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

Menrozzar will do the same.
Kinetic Healing: 3d6 + 11 ⇒ (3, 4, 5) + 11 = 23
"That's the butcher done for. Where is the next concentration of giants, Droja?"

Bupkis |

"Where chapel from here?", Bupkis asks.
The goblin steels himself and looks around the kitchen, not looking too closely at the carcasses (he doesn't want to figure out what they all were in life).
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25
The fight was in K15, was it not? K16 is between there and K18.

Foxy Quickpaw |

The search of the kitchen and mess area turns up nothing. That butcher was a brute, but had nothing of value.
Across the yard you find a barricaded oaken double door. And it is done thoroughly. It takes some time to pry it off. Once done, a warning painted on the doors in bright red letters is revealed. In Giant and Orc it says Keep Out! Vengeful Spirit inside!
Inside faded white paint peels from the dust-coated walls of this grand, vaulted chamber. Several sturdy pews sit in perfect rows facing west, where a simple altar sits upon a marble dais. Opposite the altar, a statue of a stern woman clad in full plate armor, brandishing a longsword and shield, stands vigil against the eastern wall of the room. A tangible sense of calm pervades this abandoned chapel.

Bupkis |

Bupkis looks at the statue across from the alter, and whispers, "Who is statue woman?"
Knowledge Religion (untrained, max DC 10): 1d20 ⇒ 4
He moves forward cautiously, looking around for the spirit. He hopes it won't be angry with him!
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

Knowledge (religion) untrianed, max DC 10: 1d20 ⇒ 1
Menrozzar shrugs. "I'm not sure. We should be ready to flee the spirit, though."

Daseem |

Kn: Religion: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
"Iomadae." breathed Daseem as he studied the statue briefly, "This place is h-holy to her. Evil spirit seem unlikely..."
Daseem doesn't touch anything but he has a good look around.
Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (8) + 13 = 21

Bupkis |

Bupkis is about to follow Droja, but stops; the voice doesn't sound vengeful to him. "How we help?", he asks the figure hesitantly.

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

Menrozzar looks embarrassed by his momentary memory lapse on forgetting Iomedae.
I wasn't sure if it was acceptable for me to know the answer to that or not. I assumed it was, but it could have been Arazni.
"My companion Bupkis speaks the truth. How can we help you?"

Foxy Quickpaw |

"Help me to get free of the evil that binds me to this place!" The ghost begs.
"The fort’s castellan, Tamand Varias went crazy when the fort was besieged by the orcs. When we ran out of food, he wanted to feed the fallen to the soldiers. When I wouldn't let him, he killed me."
"He told the soldiers lies about me hiding food in the chapel and fleeing the fort. He persuaded them to hide and lock in all the families in the chapel, for safekeeping, so the soldiers could fight without worrying about them. But in truth, he slaughtered them one by one and fed them to the soldiers." the ghost tells sobbing.
"As a ghost I warned my family, but my wife confronted Varias, who killed her too. Only my sons got away."
"You have to find the remains of Varias and destroy them on the altar!"

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

Menrozzar says, "Did Tamand have any kind of badge of office? Something like this?"
Menrozzar shows the necklace they took off the corpse in the room with the ogre mage ritual.

Bupkis |

"We see skeleton inside sewer entrance," Bupkis reminds the others. He didn't look at it closely at the time, but wonders now if it's related to this tragedy.
Link to description in gameplay.

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

Link to Post with ogre ritual.
"Where we found this chain of office included the body, but not his head. I assume you'll need the head as well, in order to find peace?"

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

"Very well. We'll search for his head, and then once we have all the remains, we'll return here to put you to rest."

Bupkis |

The goblin replied, "Yes, Bupkis agrees! Maybe skull near there."
He waits until the others are ready, and then leads the way.

Foxy Quickpaw |

To get to the armory, where the skeleton and the dead ogres are is a pain in the ass. There is no direct entrance into the building at ground level. So it's up the stairs in the yard, over the small drawbridge into the entrance hall, to the side room and down the spiral staircase. Then onwards through the storage cellar and into the armory.
Rows of barren shelves, empty weapon racks, and vacant armor stands skirt the perimeter of this chamber. The numerous candles are burnt down, it is dark. In the center of the room, a headless skeleton lies in the middle of a large oval sand pit, surrounded by several arcane symbols and strange, jagged runes etched into the sand. A large, life-sized painting of an obese man hangs on the wall at the far end of the room, its eerily realistic glare boring into the chamber.
The obese bodies of the three ogres lie also in the room. Circled by flies.

Bupkis |

Bupkis wets a cloth and holds it over his mouth and nose, to counter the stench of death. He looks around again, just in case the head is here somewhere.
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10
He suggests, "Magic paper writings allow talk to dead ogres? Maybe they know where head.
"Anyone recognize man in painting?"
As mentioned in OOC thread, we found two scrolls of Speak with Dead on the ogres.

Daseem |

Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (2) + 13 = 15
Daseem shrugged at Bupkis, he wasn't one for paintings. The idea of asking the dead ogres questions was intriguing but a thing worried him, how would he make it known who they were on about. Frowning he asked the others, "W-what did he look like in life?"
Not sure if we where told, or if Daseem payed attention ;P

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

Knowledge (arcana) to know about the spell Speak with Dead: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27
Speak with Dead does not specify that the answers are only given in the languages the creature speaks, which means the fact that none of us speaks Giant isn't a barrier. Is my knowledge check high enough to know that won't be an impediment?

Foxy Quickpaw |

The fat guy in the portrait wears the same clothes as the skeleton.
You grant the semblance of life to a corpse, allowing it to answer questions. You may ask one question per two caster levels. The corpse’s knowledge is limited to what it knew during life, including the languages it spoke.
This excerpt let's you know for sure, that only speaking in the creatures tongue will get you answers.
Droja sits down on the floor and retraces the outline of the symbols painted on the ground.

Bupkis |

Bupkis is quiet for a minute, not knowing what to say. He doesn't know much about the woman, and has so many questions in his mind. Eventually he asks the half-orc, "You work for orc general?"

Daseem |

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25
Daseem looks at Droja for a moment before replying, "D-do you really have to though? Working for a general sounds fun to me but not fer all, my Tessa would hate it and find a way to escape."
Daseem frowned, he hadn't thought about her for a while and he suddenly wonderes was Tessa really still his Tessa? What if she was waiting for him? He he wasn't sure he deserved that.

Bupkis |

Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 5
Bupkis wonders why Droja would feel like she has to work for the orc general. Threatens family? He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. He suggests to her, "Maybe we help?"

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

I read that text 3 times, and every time I somehow missed the "languages it spoke" section. I need to re-learn reading comprehension, it appears.
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9
Menrozzar knows what the spell can do, but also knows that their lack of ability to speak the ogre's language would render it useless. Unless Droja did.
"Droja, do you speak the ogre's tongue? Could you translate for us if we used magic to ask their spirits where the head to the corpse was?"
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 2 = 14

Daseem |

Daseem shrugged Droja's words were nothing to him, "I know they b-bleed like the rest of us." Deep down Daseem was hoping to test his mettle against the orc general although he thought brightly some some more giants would make an acceptable second best.

Ivan "The Mountain" Ironbrow |

I know orcs make for almost as good smashin' targets as giants an' ogres. Least the ones that embrace their savage nature. Ivan says, finally unable to keep himself from talking.
Usually smell just as bad though. there is certainly malice in his voice, but its not directed towards droja, just in general.
he sighs for a moment before actually looking at Droja. So lassie, how did ya end' up in this place? Workin' for folk uglier than tha' ass end O' ah baboon's behind?

Daseem |

"Maybe you want o-out?", remarked Daseem casually. He wasn't going to push the point though, and he found himself reading the scrolls. At first it had looked like a bunch of squiggles and badly drawn pictograms, then he'd reluctantly prayed for guidance. Gorum's wisdom filled his mind and it still looked like a bunch of squiggles and childish drawings, but ones that let you speak to the dead.
Shall we get this over with?
Daseem whispers the final word of the scroll which flares with an ugly purple light that settles around one of the corpses. To Droja Daseem says, "Please tell it w-we want to find the remains of Tamand Varias the Castilian. Ask if it knows where his h-head went?"

Bupkis |

Bupkis says to Droja, "If we destroy remains, including head, of Tamand Varias on chirch alter, ghost will be free! Ogres were doing some ritual with body here, but no head."

Menrozzar Vyrlock |

"Perhaps your assistance with dispelling the ghost will be enough for you to gain freedom?"